Biography

Craig McCourry is an American filmmaker, director, and producer known for his work in historical drama and international documentary filmmaking. With a career spanning over 30 years and more than 70 countries, McCourry is recognized for his distinctive visual style and his dedication to preserving lesser-known chapters of world history through cinema.

McCourry spent 15 years in Los Angeles, where he began his career as a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker, working across television, commercials, and long-form non-fiction. He later relocated to Hong Kong, where he spent a decade producing independent films and documentary projects throughout Asia. This international experience shaped his storytelling approach-bridging cultures and capturing moments of political, personal, and historical significance.

He is the founder of Banyan Tree Movies, an independent film studio now based in Battle Ground, Washington. The studio specializes in period dramas set in the 1930s to 1960s, with a cultural focus on Asian and Asian-American narratives. McCourry's feature films, including Battlebox, Hong Kong 1942, and Christmas at the Royal Hotel, have been distributed globally and are streaming in over 120 countries via platforms such as Amazon Prime, Apple TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi.

Known for his resourceful, independent approach to filmmaking, McCourry oversees the creative and production processes from script development to post-production. His studio houses an expansive collection of historically accurate wardrobe, props, and vintage set elements-many relocated from his former Hong Kong studio-to support high-quality, cost-efficient productions. Earlier in his career, McCourry produced acclaimed documentary series such as Empires of Steam, The Great Bazaars, and Press Pass to the World. These programs have been broadcast internationally and screened at major festivals.

Craig McCourry continues to develop new period dramas with a focus on creative ingenuity-consistently finding ways to deliver films with rich visual scope and historical authenticity, all within the constraints of independent filmmaking budgets.
- IMDb mini biography by: Craig McCourry